The Hires name has been directly associated with root beer for well over 100 years. Back around the turn of the century it wasn’t uncommon for the family to gather together and enjoy home brewed root beer made with Hires Household Extract. The extract, in liquid form, was purchased in three-ounce bottles exactly like the subject bottle pictured above.
When combined with water, sugar and yeast, our three-ounce bottle of liquid extract produced five gallons of root beer that was then bottled and stored in the cellar to be used as wanted. As time went on Hires Root Beer also became available in carbonated form, both by the glass at the local drug store counter and in the bottle at the local grocer. That being said, as late as 1960 ten percent of Hires Root Beer sales were still in extract form for home use.
The root beer’s originator and namesake was Charles Elmer Hires who was born on August 19, 1851 on a farm near Roadstown, New Jersey. The son of a farmer, according to his August 2, 1937 obituary published in a New Jersey newspaper called “The News of Cumberland County,” his mother was a descendant of Martha Curtis, the wife of George Washington.
This photograph of Hires appeared in the 1925 edition of “Who’s Who in Philadelphia” (Vol II).
Hires’ early life was succinctly summarized in an item found in the November 1, 1923 edition of the “Pittsburgh Post.”
He owns one of the biggest beverage companies in the country, but he didn’t look much as though he was going to when he was 12 years old, for at that time he was just a kid working in a drug store for $1 a week and board, in Millville, N.J. John A. Wright was the name of the druggist who employed him.
“I loved the work,” he says, “that is, after I was relieved of the most menial part of it, such as cleaning and washing up bottles, mortars and pestles, and often doing housework for the family. When the four years apprenticeship was up I came to Philadelphia and obtained a clerkship as a full-fledged pharmacist, and then later went into business for myself when only 18 years old, at Sixth and Spruce Streets.”
Although by most accounts he started his business in December, 1869, I can’t find Hires listed in the Philadelphia directories until 1873. That being said, his business was certainly up and running in the early 1870’s as evidenced by this item that appeared in the May 1, 1872 edition of Bridgeton N.J.’s “Advertiser and Review ”
We recently visited the drug store of Mr. Charles E. Hires at 602 Spruce Street Philadelphia. His store is a perfect gem. Mr. H. is a native of South Jersey, and is known to many of our readers. When visiting Philadelphia give him a call, he will be glad to see you, he sells wholesale and retail…
Later that year his advertisement appeared in several editions of the same newspaper…
…and by 1874 he was advertising in the Philadelphia city directory as well.
It wasn’t until later in the decade that he formulated the idea for his root beer and, while there are several different versions of the story detailing its origins, I’ll stick with the one I found in Hires’ own words. It appeared as part of an interview he gave to an advertising publication called “Printers’ Ink” that appeared in their July 24, 1913 edition.
…Centennial year, I think – my wife and I were boarding at a farmhouse in the country, over in Jersey. The farmer’s wife was accustomed to gather teaberry leaves, sassafras bark and berries, and to steep them, making a tea. The result, when fermented with yeast was called “homemade root beer.” I conceived the idea of putting a similar product on the market, and after a great deal of experimenting I hit upon what I considered the right combination of roots and barks to produce a flavor which would please at the moment and would also send the customer back for more…
Hires went on to say:
I sold the dry herbs in a package with directions to the purchaser to steep them, later adding the yeast and sugar just as it was done by the farmer’s wife in Jersey.
Initially called “HIRES ROOT BEER PACKAGE,” Hires began promoting it in newspaper advertisements sometime in 1877. A local Philadelphia newspaper called the “Public Ledger” claimed to be the first newspaper to run advertisements for Hires’ Root Beer, a claim supported by Charles Hires himself in his “Printers’ Ink” interview. An advertising item run years later by the “Ledger” claimed their inaugural Hires’ ad appeared in the September 1, 1877 edition.
That being said, either their timing was off by a year or they were stretching the truth because because earlier that year, in May and June of 1877, this newspaper advertisement for “HIRE’S ROOT BEER PACKAGE” was already appearing not only in a local Oxford, Pennsylvania newspaper, but local newspapers in Bayonne, New Jersey and Bennington, Vermont as well.
Several years later, according to the “Printers Ink” interview, Hires, in order to save the customer the trouble of boiling and straining the dry herbs, put it up in liquid form as well. This July, 1883 advertisement published in “The Druggist Journal”, was the earliest one I could find offering it in both “Dry and Liquid Form,” (lower left-hand corner).
Later advertisements described how the liquid, later branded “Hires Household Extract,” worked.
It is so easily and quickly made. Just stir together five gallons of pure water, four pounds of sugar, half a yeast cake and a bottle of Hires Extract. Bottle with tight corks and forty -eight hours after mixing, your root beer is sparkling and ready to drink.
If your corks weren’t tight enough to deal with the pressures developed during fermentation, Hires had an answer for that, the Hires Patent Bottle Stopper. Quite substantial, examples of it still appear for sale on the internet today.
Later in the decade, not only was the root beer available in both liquid and dry form for family use, but it was also available as a concentrated solution in larger sizes for commercial use. The 1887 “Druggist’s Ready Reference” published by Morrisson, Plummer & Co., listed sizes as large as five gallons.
According to the fine print below the price list.
If you want the most profitable trade with your fountain or bottling business, manufacture and run Hires Improved Root Beer.
Country merchants can make money by making it up in a keg or bottling and selling it at five cents a glass.
In support of these early bottlers, Hires’ manufactured what he called the “Hires’ Bottle Filler.” This advertisement for it appeared in several 1883 editions of “The Druggist Journal.”
Ten years after introducing his root beer, a June 23, 1888 item published in the “Philadelphia Times,” described a healthy, growing business that owed much of its success to advertising.
A FAMOUS DRINK
How Charles E. Hires Built Up a Demand for his Beverage
One of the most popular non intoxicating drinks of the day is Hires’ root beer. It is known all over the world and there is as great a demand for it in Australia and other distant countries as there is in America. Its growth has been sure and steady. It was about ten years ago that Charles E. Hires began making root beer extract. He advertised it extensively, but for the first four or five years his receipts fell short of his expenditures, and it looked as if the experiment would prove a failure. But Mr. Hires was too enterprising to be easily discouraged and he kept using printers’ ink in advertising the qualities of his root beer, and he soon built up a demand for it…
Last year his business was simply wonderful and this year he expects to treble last year’s figures. His headquarters are in the big four-story building at 119 Arch Street, where the manufacturing business is carried on. He is a heavy advertiser and already this year he has paid out $30,000 in advertising, giving out one contract of $9,000 alone. Mr. Hires has ten men on the road, putting up large and beautiful hangers in many colors and distributing picture cards and small books for children. He has distributed about 600,000 little illustrated books of rhymes and stories to children, besides using 4,000,000 books with another house, each dividing the advertising expenses.
One of his children’s stories “Happy Hours in Fairyland,” was featured in this June, 1888 advertisement found in “The American Magazine.”
The story also mentioned picture cards, an avenue of advertising that Hires mentioned in his 1913 “Printers’ Ink” interview.
In the 80’s and early 90’s the druggist, and to a lesser extent the grocer, were regular distributing factors for manufacturers’ literature. How much of it was effectively distributed was a question, of course, but there was almost always a pile of cards or booklets or almanacs in the store from which customers were at liberty to help themselves.
One such card entitled “An Uninvited Guest,” caught my attention.
Customized, the card not only included the Hires name and marketing message on the reverse side, but it highlighted a local Vermont grocer as well.
As the above 1888″Philadelphia Inquirer” story suggests, at this point the Hires business was operating out of a four-story building at 119 Arch Street. An engraving illustrating this location can be found in the Tredyffrin Easttown History Quarterly (Vol. 53, No. 1).
As far as I can tell the company moved to Arch Street in 1888 after occupying 602 Spruce Street (circa 1869 – 1876), 9 Letitia Street (circa 1877-1878), 215 Market Street (circa 1879 – 1880) and 48 N. Delaware Avenue (circa 1881 – 1887).
In 1890, Hires incorporated the business under the “Charles E. Hires Copmpany” name. The incorporation notice appeared in the August 22nd edition of the “Philadelphia Times.”
A ROOT BEER BOOM
A Largely Capitalized Company to Do Business in This City
Charles E. Hires, the widely known root beer manufacturer and importer of vanilla beans, of 117 Arch Street, this city, has through his counsel, Benjamin B. Wilson, filed a petition asking the State to grant articles of incorporation to the Charles E. Hires Company. The new company will manufacture on a large scale Hires’ root beer, cough cure and other preparations.
The incorporators of the company are Charles E. Hires, William A. Ingersoll, William N. Hires, Joseph H. Ingersoll and D. Kelsey Whittaker. The cash capital stock of the company is $300,000, which is full paid in. The business will remain under the direct supervision of Charles E. Hires, who owns the greater part of the stock.
As early as 1895 the company experimented with putting out their root beer ready to drink, in bottles. According to Hires’ in his 1913 “Printers’ Ink” interview:
The household extract, which needed preparation and a certain amount of aging before it was ready to drink was naturally a seasonal product, and it was thought that by putting the goods in bottled form, more or less of a sale could be induced the year round.
This early advertisement featuring their pint-sized bottle appeared in the July 3, 1897 edition of “Harper’s Magazine”
Hires went on to say:
The experiment was not a success on account of the price we put on the bottled goods. Transportation charges were too heavy, and we found it much more economical to license the bottling privilege to local concerns as we are doing today.
A significant transition period in the business came in the early 1900’s when the bulk of the soft-drink trade shifted from the cellar at home to the soda fountain on the corner. As early as 1908 this July 4th “Philadelphia Inquirer” advertisement bragged, “At All Soda Fountains.”
That being said, the transition did not come without its problems, one of which was substitution. The other, was described by Hires in his interview.
I felt that it was necessary to the success of the drink that the syrup and water be mixed more accurately than the average soda clerk is accustomed to handle them.
Both problems led to the development of a dispensing machine called the “Munimaker.” which made its appearance sometime in 1908. According to Hires:
It mixes the syrup and the soda water automatically and instantly in exactly the right proportions. It identifies the resulting drink as Hires, for the dealer would be a bold pirate indeed who would venture to serve any other kind of root beer syrup through the machine.
This picture of the “Munimaker” appeared in the December, 1908 edition of the “Bulletin of Pharmacy.”
Though spelled “Munimaker,” it was certainly pronounced “money maker,” and that’s how he promoted it to the local drug store owner, as evidenced by the following advertisement that appeared in several 1908 editions of “The Bulletin of Pharmacy.”
Hires went on to say that it was a “money maker” for his business as well..
Best of all the Munimaker has opened up a great many new channels for the sale of the goods – in places that do not provide regular soda fountains. We have installed a great many machines in department stores, in Y.M.C.A. buildings, and even in saloons.
As far as I can tell the company was located in Malverne, Pennsylvania for a time during the early 1900’s, before returning to Philadelphia, where they began listing their address as 210 Broad Street about 1905. Ten years later they were planning another move, this time to what would be their long-time home on South 24th Street. The announcement appeared in the April 14, 1914 edition of the “Philadelphia Inquirer.”
Though he continued to be associated with the business until 1925, Charles E. Hires, according to his obituary, quit active work in 1916. At that point he turned the business over to his sons, with Charles E., Jr. becoming president and J. Edgar and Harrison S. assuming vice presidencies. This photograph of Charles, Jr. appeared in the April 6, 1929 edition of Harrisburg Pennsylvania’s “Patriot-News.”
As far as I can tell, it was during Charles, Jr.’s presidency that the company began to increase their focus on bottled root beer. Evidence to that effect, not surprisingly in the form of advertising, began appearing in the 1920’s. One such ad appeared in the May 14, 1925 edition of the “Philadelphia Inquirer.”
By 1925 even their delivery trucks were promoting Hires in the bottle as evidenced by this July 16, 1925 advertisement for “Autocar.”
That’s not to say the company was abandoning their “make it yourself at home” extract, now called Household Extract, as evidenced by this May 21, 1925 “Pittsburgh Post” advertisement.
In fact, the June 30, 1931 edition of the “Philadelphia Inquirer” touted Hires fountain, extract and bottled root beer all in one advertisement.
By 1940, the Charles E. Hires Company’s entry in Standard & Poor’s corporate directory described a large corporation that in addition to using franchised bottlers was now back bottling the root beer themselves as well.
Company manufactures Hires Fountain Syrups, used in the making of Hires Root Beer dispensed over the counter, and Hires Root Beer Extract, used to flavor beverages for home consumption. These products are distributed through wholesalers and chain store organizations. It also makes and sells direct to bottlers, under franchise, a solution used to make carbonated Hires Root Beer. All these products are distributed throughout the United States and in certain foreign countries.
Either directly or through its Canadian subsidiary, company also operated bottling plants of its own for manufacture of Hires Root Beer, the output of which is sold through wholesalers and retailers.
As late as 1960, an August 30th feature found in the “Cleveland Press,” described a company that was still heavily involved in all aspects of the root beer business.
Hires reportedly does 25% of the nation’s root beer business. Some 1,000 competitors account for the remainder – mostly on a local basis.
Root beer not only is consumed as a bottled, canned or fountain drink. A surprisingly large amount is still being made in the homes (mostly rural) from household extracts.
Hires estimates that about 10% of its business is in household extracts, 40 % in fountain syrup and 50% in bottled and canned sales through it’s eight plants and 400 franchised bottlers in the U. S. and Canada.
The story went on to say that the Hires family had just given up control of the business selling their stock to Consolidated Foods.
Consolidated Foods, yesterday acquired 58% of Hires common stock for about $4,200,ooo. Consolidated, which paid $19 a share for the Hires family interest, is making an offer to all Hires stockholders at the same price.
Two years later, the June 30, 1962 edition of the Yonkers “Herald Statesman” reported that Consolidated Foods merged their Hires operation with Crush International.
Merger of two soft drink organizations was completed today. Crush International acquired Consolidated Food Corporation’s Hires Division, and Hires Co., Ltd. of Canada.
J.M. Thompson, president of Crush International, said the merger brings his firm 600 franchised bottling operations in the United States and 115 in Canada, with several others in foreign countries.
As far as I can tell, Hires Root Beer was advertised along with Crush soda products up through at least 2006. One of the last of their combined newspaper ads that I can find appeared in the March 1, 2006 edition of the “Houston Chronicle.”
Three years later, in 2009, the last mention of Hires Root Beer that I can find in a newspaper advertisement appeared in the February 26th edition of Harrisburg Pennsylvania’s “Patriot-News.”. That year you could pick up a 1.5 liter bottle at “Family Dollar” for $1 (bottom row, 2nd from left).
I’ve found three “Hires” bottles over the years. Machine made, they all contain three ounces and exhibit embossing that includes the phrase “Hires Household Extract.” According to the February 19, 1909 edition of “The Reatail Grocers Advocate,” the company began using that product name around that time.
Hires Root Beer is now called Hires Household Extract to comply with the Law.
In addition, all three bottles were manufactured to accommodate a cork closure. An unscientific review of their advertising suggests the company used this type of closure up through at least 1929. This likely dates the bottles to sometime between 1909 when they began using the phrase “Hires Household Extract,” and the early 1930’s when I’d expect to see a screw-top.